Arriving In The Present Moment

Given the Independence Day Holiday weekend is here, I thought sharing a video with Thich Nhat Hanh, speaking on aspects of Buddhist practice that can enable us to "Arrive in the Present Moment." Towards that direction, I really enjoyed how he related about how to "stop running from ourselves." I hope that you find a compassion within his sharing that leads you directly home to your True self.



Namaste'

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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No Mystery

During a Sesshin (Intense practice to gather the Mind) at Cho Bo Zen Ji, Genjo Marinello Osho was giving a teisho. He was speaking of how his previous teacher Genki Takabayashi Roshi "There is no mystery [in Zen]." Genjo Osho himself had directly stated, "There is not some secret that is being hidden from us. It's all out, shining and shouting at us from every corner." We just have to learn to see truth, through all of our smoke, fog and mirrors that can distract us.

My personal mystery was, "How could I be given something so amazing as life, where the only possible outcome was that I would lose this gift to something called death." It seemed somehow impossibly cruel and terribly unfair. Adding insult to injury, we also don't get to know the date, time or place where our life will end. I was very afraid to die, because it seemed such a mystery and so unknowable.

It took me from the age of twelve until I was about twenty-one years old just to realize that my psychological response was to create a "Hall of Mirrors and Illusions," better know as "My life." To borrow a Pop-culture metephor, I was living in "The Matrix." The net-result was feeling like there were major parts of life that was a mystery that I wasn't sure that I would be able to solve. It can be a terrible moment to fully see that we've been living in a self-created prison cell and we had in many regards been our own jailer.

Through Zen, I honestly learned that most of what I was seeing and observing was not true but rather stuff that I kind of made up as I went a long, fulfilling a script or narrative that I had built within my mind. It was more like being an actor in a film. I came to see that my "illusions" couldn't be solved, if for no other reason that they're not real. That might seem like an odd thing to say, but if you don't understand it now, we will "Over time."

When I say overtime I mean to say, think of a one gallon glass jar, filled with clean pure water. It looks clear and beautiful, especially when the sunlight passes through it. That's the state of our mind when we are very small. Everything is open and accessible. As we get older (teens, early-middle and late adulthood) we not only pour dirt in the jar, diminishing the clarity, but we have the nerve to stick our hand inside and stir things up, with our anxiety, negative feelings, self-centered patterns of behavior and other problems of life. It can seem like the sunlight has no way to penetrate this dense muddied water.

When we remove our hand from the jar (applying The Eightfold Path, The Ten Precepts, etc...), stop pouring dirt in the jar and just sit-sit-sit, the natural force of gravity allows the dirt to sink to the bottom our the jar and as time passes, the natural clarity of the water is revealed. It was always there. There never was any mystery to our life. It was just muddied by our deluded mind and actions. It was never hidden or hiding from us. It was Just right there all the time.

Zen Buddhism is not a philosophy, theory, wishful thinking, fantasy. Zen Buddhism a practice that enables the process of waking ourselves from a kind of sleep or self-hypnotic state. Zen Buddhism is completely knowable and attainable. The price however is resolute practice in The Way of No Mystery.

In Gassho,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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Mercy

Last evening I saw one of my friends. He told me about a situation where someone had done a deeply serious wrong to him and his family. It was a really terrible act and now the court case is soon to arrive. He expressed how he had a lot of mixed feelings and how it left him confused. He asked me what I thought. Instantly looking him directly in the eyes, I replied "Show and be mercy, that could be Your choice."

My friend said, "I hadn't thought of that." Tears began to fall and I gave his a hug. He said, "Most people told me, revenge and wanting the person to be dead was okay. Other people said, pray other the situation but it felt passive to me. That I might be able to find mercy within me, reminds me that I'm human. Thank you for that."

Later my friend asked, "How did you know to tell me what I needed to hear?" I replied that I didn't, but then I shared about my time as a child I was very seriously abused by someone related to me. I told him about the rage, anger and desire for revenge that consumed me, later expressing itself in drug (including alcohol) addiction. And then I related that despite all of that so-called justified anger and rage, the only way that I personally was able to find any sense of relief was by over-time, counseling and Zen to take that hurt and suffering, dissolve it, allowing mercy and the compassion to emerge within my life.

In my experience it's easy for me to give way to my anger and rage, when an injustice occurs. It instantly hooks our attention. It takes strong effort and time for me to go the other way, swimming upstream against the current of our basic emotions, not just saying the word "Mercy," but to embrace physically, emotionally and spiritually what that word actually Is. It can be a terrible thing to become a prisoner in our own mind and heart. I find it better that we find a way to be free and emotionally and spiritually awake and open to this Life. The ability to show "Mercy," is a great gift.


Namaste'

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Inconsistently Kind To Myself

Why do we practice The Way? This is a common question. On some level the real answer is always the same [for each of us], to become so-called "enlightened." If I were to put it another way for myself, it would be to say, to be in the seamless nature of This life.

So with such high aspirations, it's sad if not funny that we can do things to block our own path. This "blocking," for me is that I can be "Inconsistently kind" to myself, tripping and at times even discouraging myself.

When I say "Inconsistently Kind," what I mean on the deeper level is that as I'm moving though my life, when things go "Not as expected," it can take me about 15 seconds to whip out the invisible baseball bat on myself. I can say to myself, "You should have seen that one coming. Why did you make that choice? When are you going to completely change? If you're intent on practicing, why did you stand there while others gossiped?" Each of us have many, many negative self statements, which can lead to undermining ourselves. The trick for me has been learning how to notice these moments of unkindness and then developing the skill to let go of this kind of inner self-violence.

Another aspect of being "Inconsistently kind," is not properly taking care of ourselves. This covers a lot of ground. There are things like "proper diet, proper exercise, Zazen, reading, having healthy boundaries with ourselves and others, taking and making down-time." In one light some of these things seem small and insignificant, but over time they can really add up and help us to Be and Feel much more solid and firm within ourselves.

In my ongoing effort at developing skills to be [more] "Consistently kind," I've had to learn how to see though situations enough that I can put them in their proper perspective. This includes having the ability to see my illusions for what they are. The line of thinking is "not making mountains out of molehills." The other thing is not to turn my practice into an opportunity for self-condemnation. A great example is getting angry with myself, when I "break" one of my personal policies or rules. Spiritual growth and development is a process not an event.

As I say these things, please don't make the mistake that I'm arguing against, strong effort and determination in our practice. When I am talking about in my own experience is learning how to do so with compassion and love. Without that compassion and love, the change and growth is limited and shallow.

"Happiness is an inside job," is not a throw-away line. It's really, really, really true! We have to learn how to work with our mind. This isn't the same as the nature of our education system today where we or our children are expected to learn all sorts of facts and figures. The inside job of happiness is something much bigger than. To get to that place of Being happier inside of our skin, we have to move past our inconsistent kindness and show self kindness with greater regularity.

May Your Life Go Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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Not Giving Up

It's easy to say, "Don't give up on yourself or others," but much harder to do. Part of what makes it hard is when I focus more on what's going on around me than within me. All sort of defense mechanisms like externalizing (blaming), rationalizing (excuse making), regression (back sliding after a period of progress), can be used when we want to justify or desire to give up or run away.

Compounding matters can be other factors as well. There can be issues surrounding having experienced a difficult life, the one that we didn't have that we thought we were supposed to. There can be issues of low self-esteem, forcing us to sometimes feeling awkward and out of place. There are many, many, many matters to compound and confound us that we are left, not wanting to live, but just survive the day, hoping that somehow things will be better tomorrow. There are so many things to distract, so few to unify.

The truth is that our life circumstances doesn't get better on it's own. We have to take actions that can bring or restore our mind and our life to a place that helps us weather our personal storms, so that we can live forward and not stay stuck in our personal tar-pits. For me it means building a foundation based on the eternal principles within Zen Buddhism.

The eternal principles that I am taught by my teacher, Genjo Marinello Osho are so simple. Regularly he may say "Pay attention to your life. Sit some more, Combust yourself, Practice Open-heartedly, Practice with your vows, Harmonize with your circumstances - even when You don't feel Your best." His guidance is always, "Just straight ahead." There is no complication in this other than the ones that I might choose to make or give into.

To me so-called "Real" Zen encompasses, Mindfulness, determination with a focus on kindness, compassion and a gentle hearted way with All sentient beings... that includes me. When I am living within those principles, it's much easier to live, not just survive. When I am living within the principles expressed here, there is no giving up on myself or other. There are thousand arms and hands that can help to lift us from suffering and be truly awakened. The key for me it would seem is in giving myself to This Way, and not giving up.

Love All - Serve All - Every Day,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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Bringing the Crystal of Awareness

I thought it might be helpful to conclude this week with one more short video talk with Shodo Harada, Roshi on not just bringing forth the "Crystal of Awareness," but what helps to make us mentally and emotional sick, in the first place. Many people seemed shocked by so-called "untimely death" of some people who are well know in the media. Some have said, "It ended all too soon." And I would say, not just for them, but one day all too soon, it will end for us too. That is a fact which cannot and will not be disputed. So do we live stuck in this dream and delusion or do we make the effort to wake up and experience what is really Here? Harada Roshi leans into this notion very well. Enjoy.



Love All - Serve All - Every Single Day,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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Being In This Body

I can't tell you how many times that I have sat down for Zazen (Sitting in Unification) and after a few breaths, my mind was a thousand miles away from my body. Sometimes my mind can feel plain old sleepy. Other times, my mind seems like it's set in planning mode and I'm sitting there going through tasks, looking at possible resolutions to challenges, problems and whatever. And then in other moments I'm could be running through mental video tapes about things that I did and didn't like from the day (in some cases week, months and years) before. I may be physically in my body, but I am not be mentally.

Though I'd like to make excuses and say, "It's not a big deal, it happens to everybody," that's not good enough for me. The truth for me is that when my mind is not present within my body, I could very well be avoiding myself and running away, from some things that I don't want to face. The mind or part of me that I am not always aware of, sometimes like to create smoke screens, to avoid painful mental and emotional confrontation. There's an old Tibetan expression that goes, "Just like dogs don't like to be hit with the stick, people do not like to be hit with the truth."

The clear truth is that in order to wake up, We have to stop running from ourselves. In order to wake up, even in the slightest, We must learn to be inside our own body. Without being fully present, we can remain adrift and lost in our innumerable distractions and fantasy worlds. The body is in the real world, but the mind is not.

The good news is that there is a path or trail that will lead us into our body. One solution is Zazen, even if it's only 10 minutes at a sit, counting each breath clearly - one to ten and then starting over again. And when we lose the count, just retuning gently to one. When we are fully present and our whole body is just one, just two, just three, that is in fact at that instant, the whole Universe. One little tip I can offer, if to be so bold is to suggest that we lay our "focus" on the count, not concentrate. Contraction and focus are two different things. It would be helpful to remember that.

Learning to be in my own body has been helpful to me. It has changed how I deal with not only myself, but others. This could be because when I'm with myself, I'm really with myself. When I'm with You, I can really be with You. When I'm working, I am the work. When I'm at the movies, I am really with the movie. When I'm with the lawn mower, I am really there, cutting the grass. There is not gap, no distance, no separation and no time. There is just "Being in This Body."

Love All - Serve All and Be Well,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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